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Jerry Jeff Walker is best known as the writer of "Mr. Bojangles," an enduring pop classic he wrote at the beginning of his career after meeting a street singer named Bojangles in a New Orleans drunk tank. He's also strongly associated with the progressive ("outlaw") country scene that centered around Austin, Texas, in the 1970s and included such figures as Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt.

Ironically, however, Walker is not a native Texan. He was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in upstate New York and recorded his first several albums while living in New York City. He didn't move to Austin until 1971, but he's remained a major figure in the area ever since.

Walker first recorded with the folk-rock group Circus Maximus for Vanguard in 1967. The band split after its second album, and Walker signed with Atco and released his first solo album, Mr. Bojangles, in 1968. His version of "Bojangles" never hit it big, but the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's rendition made the Top Ten of the pop charts in 1971.

Walker lived briefly in Key West, Florida, in 1970, but soon found himself in Austin. In 1972 he signed with MCA and released a self-titled album that included his version of Guy Clark's "L.A. Freeway." His best-known album, however, is Viva Terlingua, which he recorded in 1973 in the tiny Texas town of Luckenbach with the Lost Gonzo Band. The album went gold, and it's his biggest-selling album to date.

Walker was a hard partier throughout much of his career (his friends called him "Jacky Jack"), and this reputation became part of his identity. He's since cleaned up his act -- in part thanks to his wife, Susan, whom he married in 1974 -- and he's continued to record steadily into the 1990s. He released a couple albums on Elektra/Asylum in the late '70s, but remained mostly with MCA until his 1982 album Cowboy Jazz -- a record that became his last for any major label. In 1985, however, he showed the industry he could live without their help and released the first of a series of self-made cassettes, Gypsy Songman, many of which he sold via a mailing list that has grown to more than 40,000 strong. In 1987 Walker worked out a deal with Rykodisc to release his CDs, but he still sells the cassettes himself through his own company, Tried & True Music.

In 1991 and 1992 Walker hosted the weekly TV show, The Texas Connection, on TNN. In 1993 he returned to Luckenbach for an anniversary recording that became the album Viva Luckenbach! Walker's birthday is a major celebration in Austin every March, when he plays several shows in different local clubs and theaters. In 1999 he published an autobiography, -Gypsy Songman, accompanied by an LP of the same name. ~ Kurt Wolff, All Music Guide